,transcriber's ,note    ,italic text    
displayed as3 italic                    
,,bulletin ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,of 
,,wisconsin    ,serial ,no4 #dgj3       
,general ,series1 ,no4 #cjf4            
,,extension ,,division      ,,of        
,,the ,,university ,,of ,,wisconsin     
,,general ,,information ,,and ,,welfare 
,,the ,,social ,,center      ,a ,,means 
,,of ,,common ,,understanding      ,an  
address delivered by ,hon4 ,woodrow     
,wilson1 ,governor    of ,new ,jersey1  
before the ,first ,national ,conference 
on ,civic and ,social ,center           
,development1 at ,madison1    ,wis41    
,october #be1 #aiaa4      ,,price #e    
,,cents      ,,madison    ,published by 
the ,university    ,december1 #aiaa     
,entered as second-class matter ,june   
#aj1 #ahih1 at the post office at       
,madison1 ,wisconsin1 under the ,act of 
,july #af1 #ahid          ,,university  
,,extension ,,division      ,,department
 ,,of ,,correspondence-,,study     ,one 
or more courses are offered in each of  

the following lines for   home-study4   
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,greek1 ,latin    ,history              
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,political ,economy    ,political       
,science    ,sociology    ,philosophy   
,education    ,mathematics    ,english  
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,sciences        ,bacteriology1 ,botany1
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,law    ,pharmacy    ,music             
,teachers' ,reviews    ,any one or all  
of the above departmental announcements 
will be mailed  to any address on       
request4      ,,department ,,of         
,,instruction ,,by ,,lectures     ,a    
bulletin descriptive of lectures and    
lecture courses will be mailed   to any 
address on request4      ,,department   

,,of ,,general ,,information ,,and      
,,welfare     ,bulletins descriptive of 
this department1 including ,municipal   
,reference1 ,civic and ,social ,center1 
and ,vocational ,institute work1        
mailed on request4      ,,department    
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,,discussion     ,bulletins on debating 
and the discussion of public questions  
will be   mailed on request without     
charge to citizens of the state4 ,copies
 will   be mailed to addresses outside  
the state upon receipt of list price4   
,the ,university of ,wisconsin          
,,university ,,extension ,,division     
,department of ,general ,information and
 ,welfare      ,,madison1 ,,wis4        
,,officers ,,of ,,administration        
,,charles ,,richard ,,van ,,hise1 ,ph4  
,d41 ,,ll4 ,d4 ,president of the        
,university     ,,louis ,e4 ,,reber1 ,m4
 ,s41 ,sc4 ,d4 ,dean1 ,university       
,extension ,division     ,,edward ,j4   
,,ward1 ,m4 ,a4 ,adviser1 ,bureau of    
,civic and ,social ,center              

,development4          ,,the ,,social   
,,center    ,a ,,means ,,of ,,common    
,,understanding       ,an address       
delivered by ,hon4 ,woodrow ,wilson1    
,governor of ,new ,jersey1   before the 
,first ,national ,conference on ,civic  
and ,social ,center   ,development1 at  
,madison1 ,wis41 ,october #be1 #aiaa4   
,i do not feel that ,i have deserved the
 honor of standing here upon  this      
occasion to make what has been          
courteously called the principal        
address1 because five months ago ,i did 
not know anything about this  movement4 
,i have taken no active part in it1 and 
,i am not going to  assume1 as those who
 have preceded me have assumed1 that you
 know what  the movement is4 ,i want1 if
 for no other purpose than to clarify my
 own  thinking1 to state as briefly as  
possible1 what the movement is4    ,the 
object of the movement is to make the   
schoolhouse the civic center  of the    
community1 at any rate in such          
communities as are supplied with  no    

other place of common resort4           
,ready for ,use--,the ,means of         
,concerting ,common ,life    ,it is     
obvious that the schoolhouse is in most 
communities used only  during certain   
hours of the day1 those hours when the  
rest of the  community is busily engaged
 in bread-winning work4 ,it occurred to 
the  gentlemen who started this movement
 that inasmuch as the schoolhouses      
belonged to the community it was        
perfectly legitimate that the  community
 should use them for its own            
entertainment and schooling when  the   
young people were not occupying them4   
,and that1 therefore1 it  would be a    
good idea to have there all sorts of    
gatherings1 for social  purposes1 for   
purposes of entertainment1 for purposes 
of conference1  for any legitimate thing
 that might bring neighbors and friends 
together in the schoolhouses4 ,that1 ,i 
understand it1 in its simplest  terms is
 the civic center movement--that the    
schoolhouses might be made  a place of  

meeting--in short1 where by meeting each
 other the people  of a community might 
know each other1 and by knowing each    
other might  concert a common life1 a   
common action4      ,spontaneous        
,development    ,the study of the civic 
center is the study of the spontaneous  
life of  communities4 ,what you do is to
 open the schoolhouse and light it in   
the  evening and say3 8,here is a place 
where you are welcome to come and do    
anything that it occurs to you to do40  
,and the interesting thing about this   
movement is that a great many  things   
have occurred to people to do in the    
schoolhouse1 things social1  things     
educational1 things political1--for one 
of the reasons why  politics took on a  
new complexion in the city in which this
 movement  originated was that the      
people who could go into the            
schoolhouses at  night knew what was    
going on in that city and insisted upon 
talking  about it1 and the minute they  
began talking about it1 many things     

became impossible1 for there are scores 
of things that must be put a  stop to in
 our politics that will stop the moment 
they are talked of  where men will      
listen4 ,the treatment for bad politics 
is exactly the  modern treatment for    
tuberculosis--it is exposure to the open
 air4    ,now you have to begin at the  
root of the matter in order to          
understand  what it is you intend to    
serve by this movement4 ,you intend to  
serve  the life of communities1 the life
 that is there1 the life that you       
cannot create1 the life to which you can
 only give release and  opportunity2 and
 wherein does that life consist8 ,that  
is the question  that interests me4     
,there can be no life in a community so 
long as its  parts are segregated and   
separated4 ,it is just as if you        
separated  the organs of the human body 
and then expected them to produce life4 
,you must open wide the channels of     
sympathy and communication between      
them1 you must make channels for the    

tides of life2 if you clog them         
anywhere1 if you stop them anywhere1 why
 then the processes of disease  set in1 
which are the processes of              
misunderstanding1 which are the         
disconnections between the spiritual    
impulses of different sections of  men4 
,common ,center ,essential to ,community
 ,life    ,the very definition of       
community is a body of men who have     
things in  common1 who are conscious    
that they have things in common1 who    
judge  those common things from a single
 point of view1 namely1 the point of    
view of general interest4 ,such a thing 
as a community is unthinkable1          
therefore1 unless you have close        
communication2 there must be a vital    
inter-relationship of parts1 there must 
be a fusion1 there must be a            
cordination1 there must be a free       
intercourse1 there must be such a       
contact as will constitute union itself 
before you will have the true  course of
 the wholesome blood throughout the     

body4    ,therefore1 when you analyze   
some of our communities you will see    
just  how necessary it is to get their  
parts together4 ,take some of our great 
cities for example4 ,do you not realize 
by common gossip even1 the  absolute    
disconnection of what we call their     
residential sections from  the rest of  
the city8 ,isn't it singular that while 
human beings live  all over a city1 we  
pick out a part1 a place where there are
 luxurious  and well-appointed houses   
and call that the residential section8  
,as  if nobody else lived anywhere in   
that city4 ,that is the place where  the
 most disconnected part and in some     
instances the most useless  part of the 
community lives4 ,there men do not know 
their next-door  neighbors2 there men do
 not want to know their next-door       
neighbors2  there is no bond of         
sympathy2 there is no bond of knowledge 
or common  acquaintanceship4    ,i am   
not speaking of these things to impeach 
a class1 for ,i know of no  just way in 

which to impeach a class4    ,it is     
necessary that such portions of the     
community should be linked  with the    
other portions2 it is necessary that    
simple means should be  found by which  
by an interchange of points of view we  
may get together1  for the whole process
 of modern life1 the whole process of   
modern  politics1 is a process by which 
we must exclude misunderstandings1      
exclude hostilities1 exclude deadly     
rivalries1 make men understand  other   
men's interests1 bring all men into     
common counsel1 and so  discover what is
 the common interest4    ,that is the   
problem of modern life which is so      
specialized that it is  almost          
devitalized1 so disconnected that the   
tides of life will not  flow4           
,means to the ,unity of ,communities    
,my interest in this movement1 as it has
 been described to me1 has  been touched
 with enthusiasm because ,i see in it a 
channel for the  restoration of the     
unity of communities4 ,because ,i am    

told that things  have already happened 
which bear promise of this very thing4  
,i was told what is said to be a typical
 story of a very fine lady1 a  woman of 
very fine natural parts1 but very       
fastidious1 whose automobile  happened  
to be stalled one night in front of an  
open schoolhouse where  a meeting was   
going on over which her seamstress was  
presiding4 ,she  was induced by some    
acquaintances of hers whom she saw going
 into the  building1 to go in1 and was  
at first filled with disdain2 she didn't
  like the looks of some of the people1 
there was too much mixture of  the sort 
she didn't care to associate with--an   
employe of her own was  presiding--but  
she was obliged to stay a little while1 
it was the most  comfortable place to   
stay while her automobile was repaired1 
and before  she could get away she had  
been touched with the generous contagion
 of  the place4 ,here were people of all
 sorts talking about things that were   
interesting1 that revealed to her things

 that she had never dreamed of  before  
with regard to the vital common         
interests of persons whom she  had      
always thought unlike herself1 so that  
the community of the human  heart was   
revealed to her1 the singleness of human
 life4      ,worth ,any ,effort to      
,promote    ,now if this thing does     
that1 it is worth any effort to promote 
it4 ,if  it will do that1 it is the     
means by which we shall create          
communities4  ,and nothing else will    
produce liberty--you cannot have liberty
 where  men do not want the same        
liberty1 you cannot have it where they  
are  not in sympathy with one another1  
you cannot have it where they do not    
understand one another1 you cannot have 
it when they are not seeking  common    
things by common means1 you simply      
cannot have it2 we must study  the means
 by which these things are produced4    
,in the first place1 don't you see that 
you produce communities by  creating    
common feeling8 ,i know that a great    

emphasis is put upon  the mind1 in our  
day1 and as a university man ,i should  
perhaps not  challenge the supremacy of 
the intellect1 but ,i have never been   
convinced that mind was really monarch  
in our day1 or in any day that  ,i have 
yet read of1 or1 if it is monarch1 it is
 one of the modern  monarchs that rules 
and reigns but does not govern4         
,common ,feeling ,essential to ,free    
,government    ,what really controls our
 action is feeling4 ,we are governed by 
the  passions and the most that we can  
manage by all our social and  political 
endeavors is that the handsome passions 
shall be in the  majority--the passion  
of sympathy1 the passion of justice1 the
 passion  of fair dealing1 the passion  
of unselfishness1 7if it may be elevated
  into a passion74 ,if you can once see 
that a working majority is  obtained for
 the handsome passions1 for the feelings
 that draw us  together1 rather than for
 the feelings that separate us1 then you
  have laid the foundation of a         

community and a free government and1    
therefore1 if you can do nothing else in
 the community center than draw  men    
together so that they will have common  
feeling1 you will have set  forward the 
cause of civilization and the cause of  
human freedom4    ,as a basis of the    
common feeling you must have a mutual   
comprehension4  ,the fundamental truth  
in modern life1 as ,i analyze it1 is a  
profound  ignorance4 ,i am not one of   
those who challenge the promoters of    
special  interests on the ground that   
they are malevolent1 that they are bad  
men2 ,i challenge their leadership on   
the ground that they are ignorant  men1 
that when you have absorbed yourself in 
a particular business  through half your
 life1 you have no other point of view  
than the point  of view of that business
 and that1 therefore1 you are           
disqualified by  ignorance from giving  
counsel as to the common interests4     
,a witty ,english writer once said3 8,if
 you chain a man's head to a  ledger and

 knock off something from his wages     
every time he stops  adding up1 you     
can't expect him to have enlightened    
views about the  antipodes40 ,simply1 if
 you immerse a man in a given           
undertaking1 no  matter how big that    
undertaking is1 and keep him immersed   
for half a  life time1 you can't expect 
him to see any horizon1 you can't expect
  him to see human life steadily or see 
it whole4      ,means to ,liberal       
,education    ,i once made this         
statement that a university was intended
 to make young  people just as unlike   
their fathers as possible4 ,by which ,i 
do not mean  anything disrespectful to  
their fathers1 but merely this1 by the  
time a  man is old enough to have       
children in college1 his point of view  
is apt  to have become so specialized   
that they would better be taken away    
from  him and put in a place where their
 views of life will be regeneralized    
and they will be disconnected from the  
family and connected with the  world4   

,that1 ,i understand to be the function 
of education1 of the  liberal education4
    ,now a kind of liberal education    
must underlie every wholesome political 
and social process1 the kind of liberal 
education which connects a  man's       
feeling and his comprehension with the  
general run of mankind1  which          
disconnects him from the special        
interests and marries his  thought to   
the common interests of great           
communities and of great  cities and of 
great states and of great nations1 and1 
if possible1  with that brotherhood of  
man that transcends the boundaries of   
nations  themselves4    ,those are the  
horizons to my mind of this social      
center movement1 that  they are going to
 unite the feelings and clarify the     
comprehension of  communities1 of bodies
 of men who draw together in conference4
      ,conference ,always ,modifies and 
,improves ,thought    ,i would like to  
ask if this is not the experience of    
every person here  who has ever acted in

 any conference of any kind4 ,did you   
ever go out  of a conference with       
exactly the same views with which you   
went in8 ,if  you did1 ,i am sorry for  
you1 you must be thought-tight4 ,for my 
part ,i  can testify that ,i never      
carried a scheme into a conference      
without  having it profoundly modified  
by the criticism of the other men in the
  conference and without recognizing    
when ,i came out that the product  of   
the common council bestowed upon it was 
very much superior to any  private      
thought that might have been used for   
its development4 ,the  processes of     
attrition1 the contributions to         
consensus of minds1 the  compromises of 
thought create those general movements  
which are the  streams of tendency and  
the streams of development4      ,will  
,make ,easier ,solution of ,great       
,problems    ,and so it seems to me that
 what is going to be produced by this   
movement1--not all at once1 by slow and 
tedious stages1 no doubt1  but          

nevertheless very certainly in the      
end1--is in the first place a  release  
of common forces now undiscovered1 now  
somewhere banked up1  and now somewhere 
unavailable1 the removal of barriers to 
the common  understanding1 the opening  
of mind to mind1 the clarification of   
the  air and the release in that        
clarified air of forces that can live in
  it1 and just so certainly as you      
release those forces you make easier    
the fundamental problem of modern       
society1 which is the problem of        
accommodating the various interests in  
modern society to one another4          
,adjustment ,necessary to ,liberty    ,i
 used to teach my classes in the        
university that liberty was a matter  of
 adjustment and ,i was accustomed to    
illustrate it in this way2 when  you    
have perfectly assembled the parts of a 
great steam engine1 for  example1 then  
when it runs1 you say that it runs free2
 that means that  the adjustment is so  
perfect that the friction is reduced to 

a minimum1  doesn't it1 and the minute  
you twist any part out of alignment1 the
  minute you lose adjustment1 then there
 is a buckling up and the whole  thing  
is rigid and useless4 ,now to my mind1  
that is the image of  human liberty2 the
 individual is free in proportion to his
 perfect  accommodation to the whole1 or
 to put it the other way1 in proportion 
to the perfect adjustment of the whole  
to his life and interests4    ,take     
another illustration2 you are sailing a 
boat1 when do you say that  she is      
running free1 when you have thrown her  
up into the wind8 ,no1  not at all4     
,every stick and stitch in her shivers  
and you say she is  in irons2 nature has
 grasped her and says3 8,you cannot go  
that way20  but let her fall off1 let   
the sheet fill and see her run like a   
bird  skimming the waters4 ,why is she  
free8 ,because she has adjusted herself 
to the great force of nature that is    
brewed with the breath of the  wind4    
,she is free in proportion as she is    

adjusted1 as she is obedient1  and so   
men are free in society in proportion as
 their interests are  accommodated to   
one another1 and that is the problem of 
liberty4      ,analysis                 
,accomplished--,now ,assembled          
,liberty as now expressed is            
unsatisfactory in this country and in   
other countries because there has not   
been a satisfactory adjustment  and you 
cannot readjust the parts until you     
analyze them4 ,very well1  we have      
analyzed them4 ,now this movement is    
intended to contribute  to an effort to 
assemble them1 bring them together1 let 
them look one  another in the face1 let 
them reckon with one another and then   
they  will coperate and not before4     
,you cannot bring adjustment into play  
until you have got the consent of  the  
parts to act together1 and then when you
 have got the adjustment1  when you have
 discovered and released those forces   
and they have  accommodated themselves  
to each other1 you have that control    

which is  the sovereignty of the people4
    ,there is no sovereignty of the     
people if the several sections of the   
people be at loggerheads with one       
another2 sovereignty comes with         
coperation1 sovereignty comes with      
mutual protection1 sovereignty  comes   
with the quick pulses of sympathy1      
sovereignty comes by a common  impulse4 
,you say and all men say that great     
political changes are impending in  this
 country4 ,why do you say so8 ,because  
everywhere you go you find  men         
expressing the same judgment1 alive to  
the same circumstances1  determined to  
solve the problems by acting together no
 matter what  older bonds they may      
break1 no matter what former            
prepossessions they  may throw off1     
determined to get together and do the   
thing4      ,enlightened ,control in    
,place of ,management    ,and so you    
know that changes are impending because 
what was a body  of scattered sentiment 
is now becoming a concentrated force1   

and so  with sympathy and understanding 
comes control1 for1 in place of this    
control of enlightened and sovereign    
opinions1 we have had in the field  of  
politics as elsewhere1 the reign of     
management1 and management is           
compounded of these two things1 secrecy 
plus concentration4    ,you cannot      
manage a nation1 you cannot manage the  
people of a state1  you cannot manage a 
great population1 you can manage only   
some central  force2 what you do1       
therefore1 if you want to manage in     
politics or  anywhere else is to choose 
a great single force or single group of 
forces1 and then find some man or men   
sagacious and secretive enough to       
manage the business without being       
discovered4 ,and that has been done  for
 a generation in the ,united ,states4   
,now1 the schoolhouse among other things
 is going to break that up4 ,is  it not 
significant that this thing is being    
erected upon the foundation  originally 
laid in ,america1 where we saw from the 

first that the  schoolhouse and the     
church were to be the pillars of the    
,republic8 ,is  it not significant that 
as if by instinct we return to those    
sources  of liberty undefiled which we  
find in the common meeting place1 in the
  place owned by everybody1 in the place
 where nobody can be excluded1 in  the  
place to which everybody comes as by    
right8    ,and so what we are doing is  
simply to open what was shut1 to let the
  light come in upon places that were   
dark1 to substitute for locked  doors1  
open doors1 for it does not make any    
difference how many or how  few come in 
provided anybody who chooses may come   
in4 ,so as soon as you  have established
 that principle1 you have openings1 and 
these doors are  open as if they were   
the flood gates of life4      ,faith ,in
 ,people ,justified    ,i do not wonder 
that men are exhibiting an increased    
confidence in the  judgments of the     
people1 because wherever you give the   
people a chance  such as this movement  

has given them in the schoolhouse1 they 
avail  themselves of it4 ,this is not a 
false people1 this is not a people      
guided by blind impulses1 this is a     
people who want to think1 who want  to  
think right1 whose feelings are based   
upon justice1 whose instincts  are for  
fairness and for the light4    ,so what 
,i see in this movement is a recovery of
 the constructive and  creative genius  
of the ,american people1 because the    
,american people as  a people are so far
 different from others in being able to 
produce new  things1 to create new      
things out of old4      ,this ,movement 
,fundamentally ,american    ,i have     
often thought that we overlook the fact 
that the real sources  of strength in   
the community come from the bottom4 ,do 
you find  society renewing itself from  
the top8 ,don't you find society        
renewing  itself from the ranks of      
unknown men8 ,do you look to the leading
  families to go on leading you8 ,do you
 look to the ranks of the men  already  

established in authority to contribute  
sons to lead the next  generation8 ,they
 may1 sometimes they do1 but you can't  
count on them2  and what you are        
constantly depending on is the rise out 
of the ranks  of unknown men1 the       
discovery of men whom you had passed by1
 the  sudden disclosure of capacity you 
had not dreamed of1 the emergence  of   
somebody from some place of which you   
had thought the least1 of  some man     
unanointed from on high1 to do the thing
 that the generation  calls for4 ,who   
would have looked to see ,lincoln save a
 nation8 ,who that  knew ,lincoln when  
he was a lad and a youth and a young    
man--but all the  while there was       
springing up in him as if he were       
connected with the  very soil itself1   
the sap of a nation1 the vision of a    
great people1 a  sympathy so ingrained  
and intimate with the common run of men 
that he  was like the ,people           
impersonated1 sublimated1 touched with  
genius4 ,and  it is to such sources that

 we must always look4    ,no man can    
calculate the courses of genius1 no man 
can foretell the  leadership of nations4
 ,and so we must see to it that the     
bottom is  left open1 we must see to it 
that the soil of the common feeling of  
the  common consciousness is always     
fertile and unclogged1 for there can be 
no fruit unless the roots touch the rich
 sources of life4    ,and it seems to me
 that the schoolhouses dotted here1     
there1 and  everywhere1 over the great  
expanse of this nation1 will some day   
prove  to be the roots of that great    
tree of liberty which shall spread for  
the sustenance and protection of all    
mankind4            ,transcriber's      
,notes      ,new original cover art     
included with this e,book is granted to 
the    public domain4